18 Answers

6 votes

Honchkrow, #430, Dark/Flying type, looks like a pimp, etc, etc.

Honchkrow really changes from the awesome Murkrow between evolving. It loses Speed, but gets better in everything else. It really is an odd Evolution, but it's by no means a bad one! Anyway, judging by Honchkrow's stats, it screams, "Sweeper." Whether a Special Sweeper or Physical Sweeper is your choice, so I'll give a quick overview of both paths!

PHYSICAL SWEEPER

Drill Peck
(Very reliable Stab and PP capacity. It really is a birdie's best friend in battle)

Payback/Night Slash
(Honchkrow gets a bit slower once it evolves, [falling from a respectful 91 Base Speed to a less-than-impressive 71] so most of the time, Honchkrow can utilize this attack fairly well, even if it ends up outspeeding the opponent, Payback will still get more power from STAB. Still, if you're worried about Payback, then Night Slash is also just as good, as well as abusing Honchkrow's ability, Super Luck)

Steel Wing
(Deal with Rock-types that soak up your attacks and KO you, along with Ice-types, which are a big threat.)

Confuse Ray
(Good annoyer attack. Also helps you dodge a few attacks and continue to sweep)

SPECIAL SWEEPER

Dark Pulse
(The only Special-Base Dark attack in the game, so it's mandatory for your STAB. The chance of flinching really helps out)

Air Cutter
(Sort of a middling Base Power, but it has a High Critical Hit-Ratio, which helps in abusing Super Luck)

Calm Mind/Nasty Plot/Thunder Wave
(The two moves that makes Honchkrow able to use a Special Sweeper set instead of Physical Sweeper. Calm Mind is to develop a Special Tank, and Nasty Plot for raising that Special Attack high, very quickly. And yes, Honchkrow can use Thunder Wave. Since you don't have Payback to deal with, you can paralyze the opponent to compensate for middling Speed. Pick your poison)

Heat Wave
(Heat Wave is the best for melting Steels and Ice-types. It can deal with Grass and Bug-types too, but Air Cutter does just as good. Use it to deal with a weakness and a walling hindrance)

Honchkrow is one of few Pokemon that can work both sides of the attacking Spectrum, so pick whichever route your team needs most. The Special Set, if you can max Nasty Plot, ends up being the strongest, but the Physical sweeper set can annoy the foe, and has all-around better Type coverage. Both sets also take advantage of Super Luck, and can beat down the Ice-types.

From my experience, almost everything Honchkrow can handle will switch out for fear of sucker punch, and since it requires the foe to attack you to work, they essentially get a free switch out of you. You could use Pursuit, but it limits you since it's not powerful enough to take out some essential targets without them switching out, and if you want another STAB move, you severely limit what he can cover. This tries to use honchkrow's dependability on the opponent's movements to his advantage. Send him out against a pokemon you know will switch out with. Once it switches out, use Tailwind to double his speed. It makes him dangerously powerful, and with 530 speed (using a speed nature) not even Deoxys-S can outspeed him without a boost of its own. However, he's the only pokemon that can if you give him an attack nature. You should watch out for enemies in his tier with speed boost, such as Yanmega, Combusken, Ninjask and Sharpedo, for fear of their outspeeding him. If your opponent has priority, you can answer back with sucker punch. Brave bird gives him an extra bit of power, while superpower's stat drops won't bother him since he'll switch out once Tailwind wears off. You could use this with moxie, but I wouldn't really recommend it from testing. Also note that he can't learn Superpower with his DW ability.

Choice Scarf is useful to counteract his mediocre speed. With his frail defenses and superpower, he'll have to switch out a lot anyway. Life orb can work pretty well with roost, but requires something to slow down the opponent.

Brave Bird/Drill peck-STAB. Brave bird gives all out power, and Drill peck is weaker, but doesn't have recoil.

Sucker Punch/thunder wave-STAB. Offers priority when necessary.

Superpower-Covers a wide range of types. Can do incredible amounts of damage at times with ability.

Roost/Night Slash-Use roost only if you have a non choice item. Night slash works as a more reliable STAB than brave bird or sucker punch. It also works nicely with his ability.

Night-shade is for direct damage and for those who taunt you. Thunder-wave because there are few things more annoying than having your top Sweeper Paralyzed. Confuse-ray would give them an even lower chance of hitting you when combined with his previous move while Tailwind would be for team support. Roost is for healing. He does not have great defenses even with Evolite about 300 Defense, and 270 S.Def, with 262 Hp so he is unlikely to be OHKOed and can stall but do not over estimate him or under estimate him.

Double/Triple Support-krow

Quash is great to make fast and strong Pokemon epically fail. Tailwind makes your team Super fast. Haze can get rid of stat boosters, while Sunny-day and Rain-dance would be if you were running a weather team. Roost is for healing.

Moveset:Night Slash: STAB, also works well with Super Luck ability.Drill Peck: STAB, not as powerful as Brave Bird but safer and no recoil.Steel Wing: Covers weakness to Ice, Rock, and Fairy type.Roost: Healing move, works well with his high HP, and I just like healing moves.

Scarf set

Honchkrow @ Choice Scarf
Nature: Jolly
EVs: 252 Atk/252 Spd/4 Hp
Ability: Super Luck/Moxie
-Night Slash
-Brave Bird
-Steel Wing/Return
-Superpower
Alright lemme explain.
This set works out well for me. 70 base speed and scarf is OK. Night Slash + Super Luck = Insane crits. And a Brave Bird crit can be extremely dangerous from a Pokemon with base 125 Attack. This thing is the Big Boss (pun intended). The 3rd move is a filler as the 3 moves are the best and only good moves in Honchkrow's physical movepool. Return works well while teel Wing is coverage. Superpower is OK since it has crappy defense and you're gonna switch out because Honchkrow sees many threats in UU.
Hope this set brings victory to many! :D
EDIT: SUPERPOWER + MOXIE = BOSS